My Favourite Tools and Services with Student Discounts

There are many things I’m greatly enjoying about going to university after working for the last decade, but the frugal and good-deal-loving me really quickly appreciated the extensive offering of free and discounted tools and services available for students.

Some of these are genuinely generous. Others are more of a nice little saving if you were going to use the thing anyway. Either way, I started keeping a list of the ones I actually find useful, especially for coding, design, organisation, travel, and the general chaos of being a mature student with too many apps.

GitHub Student Developer Pack

The GitHub Student Developer Pack is the obvious place to start if you are studying programming, design, computing, or anything adjacent.

Verified students get GitHub Pro-level benefits, including more GitHub Actions minutes, Codespaces access, private repositories, and package storage. More importantly, GitHub Student Developer Pack unlocks a lot of partner offers, so getting verified there makes claiming other tools much easier.

GitHub Copilot Pro Student

GitHub Copilot Student is free for verified students.

Just a few months ago, GitHub was offering a Pro version of Copilot, which has access to all of the latest frontier models, including Claude Opus. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case, and GitHub continues to decrease the value that Copilot offers to students. Personally, I’m back to paying for ChatGPT, which offers generous limits with Codex. Still, for basic use on GitHub or in VS Code, even the Copilot Student plan is a nice-to-have.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean offers $200 in credit through the GitHub Student Developer Pack, valid for one year for new users.

This is great if you want to deploy a small project, learn Linux servers, run a database, or generally understand what happens after your code leaves your laptop. I’m using it for hosting my own OpenClaw instance. Just remember that cloud credit is not the same thing as infinite free hosting.

Microsoft Azure

Azure for Students gives eligible students $100 in credit without requiring a credit card.

To be honest, I haven’t explored much of what Azure has to offer, but I have been playing around with Microsoft Foundry and OpenAI for Azure. You can also run a virtual machine on Windows in case you’re using a Mac and need to access some incompatible software for your courses (for me, it was Microsoft Visio).

JetBrains Student Pack

JetBrains gives students and teachers the JetBrains Student or Teacher Pack for free. It includes IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, PyCharm, WebStorm, and the rest of the JetBrains IDE family.

These are professional-grade tools and normally not cheap, so this is one of the better education offers. The license is for non-commercial educational use, and JetBrains also offers a 40% graduation discount for former student license holders.

I used PyCharm for my Python modules when I was just getting started with my programme. If you’re looking for something more language-focused than VS Code, it’s quite a good option.

Codédex

I have been using Codédex to take some additional courses in Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to supplement my university courses.

Through the GitHub Student Developer Pack, verified students get six months of Codédex Club for free. It is not a replacement for university work, but I like it as a more playful way to get extra practice when a concept from class needs a bit more repetition.

Zed

The Zed Student plan gives verified university students Zed Pro for free for one year.

That includes Pro features, unlimited edit predictions, real-time collaboration, and $10 per month in AI token credits. I’m still mostly using VS Code as my go-to IDE, but Zed is interesting, especially for group coding work where collaboration usually becomes awkward very quickly.

Notion

Being a Notion Ambassador and completely relying on Notion for organising my university notes, I can’t do anything but recommend Notion for Education.

Students and educators can get the Plus plan for free, and GitHub Education sometimes includes additional Notion benefits too. My entire university dashboard lives in Notion: modules, lecture notes, readings, assignments, scholarships, and exam preparation. It can absolutely be overbuilt, but for me it is still the best place to keep all the university pieces connected.

You can also check my university dashboard template for Notion here.

Figma

I have been a Figma user for years, and it is currently my go-to design tool for UI and UX work. I have already used it during my degree to create mockups and diagrams for coursework.

Figma for Education gives verified higher education students free access to Figma’s Professional plan.

Sketch

Sketch used to be the UI/UX design tool before Figma took over much of the design world, but it is still relevant, especially in Apple-focused design circles.

The current Sketch for Education offer gives students and educators a free Education plan. For individual students, that includes one Editor seat, 50 GB of storage, and access to the Mac app for one year, with continued free use while it remains part of your studies.

Apple Education Store and Apple Music

Apple’s education discounts are not always massive, but they are still worth checking before buying a Mac or iPad.

In Ireland¹, Apple currently lists the MacBook Air from €1,139 with education savings. The exact saving depends on the model and configuration, but if you are buying Apple hardware for university, you might as well start from the Education Store. Apple Music also has a student plan and includes Apple TV+ for free.

KLM and Lufthansa

I know, putting airlines on this list is a bit of a stretch, but I was genuinely surprised to find out that KLM and Lufthansa offer student fares.

This is especially handy because KLM is pretty much my only realistic option to quickly get between Cork and Berlin without turning the trip into a long bus journey from Dublin.

KLM student tickets include one extra 23 kg checked bag, fee-free changes apart from any fare difference, and more flexible cancellation rules. The catch is that you need to be 18-29, a full-time student, and the fare is not available on every route.

Lufthansa student fares are more route-dependent. Most student fares include two checked bags of 23 kg each, though flights from the US are listed with one 23 kg bag, and they are not offered for bookings within Europe.

Where I Look for Discounts

Before paying for anything student-adjacent, I usually check:

Moreover, in Ireland, many universities’ student unions offer the My AMLÉ app, featuring more local discount options.

Still, going back to university has made me appreciate these offers more than I expected. Free is nice, discounted is nice, but the real benefit is being able to try proper tools while learning without immediately adding another subscription to the pile.

Pro tip: by far, the cheapest country in Europe to buy Apple products as a student is Switzerland. ↩